State Department watchdog asked to investigate senior Trump officials over UAE chip sales

The US State Department's independent watchdog acknowledged a request from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Elise Slotkin to investigate Trump administration officials over chip sales to the UAE.

The State Department's Office of the Inspector General noted the request "to investigate senior administration officials' roles in advocating for the US to sell sensitive national security technology to the UAE", in a letter dated 12 December, according to Semafor.

The letter, which appeared to be a standard response, did not commit to any investigation.

Warren and Slotkin called for an investigation into David Sacks, President Donald Trump's White House AI Czar, and diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, in September.

"The senators are seeking more information regarding the roles Sacks and Witkoff may have played in advocating for the United States to sell sensitive national security technology to the United Arab Emirates and the extent to which they stood to gain financially from those deals," the letter from September said.

"Mr Witkoff and Mr Sacks both played key roles in the White House's decision to relax national security restrictions on the shipment of advanced AI systems to the UAE," the lawmakers said. "Neither of them have disclosed their financial ties to the UAE's national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the personal benefits they have received from the Sheikh's $2 billion investment in the president's stablecoin, USD1."

The request came following a report in the New York Times that detailed a meeting between Witkoff and the UAE's national security adviser and AI czar, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, off the coast of Sardinia in the summer.

The report said that Witkoff advocated selling advanced AI chips to the UAE at the same time his son, Zach, announced that World Liberty Financial, a crypto-firm he runs with Trump's two sons, received a $2bn deposit from one of Tahnoon's companies.

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Sacks was the main advocate for selling advanced AI chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The NYT report said that Abu Dhabi's wealth fund was an early investor in Craft Ventures, a firm that Sacks helped start in 2017. Another investor was Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

In November, the Trump administration approved the export of tens of thousands of Nvidia's advanced AI chips to the UAE's state-owned AI tech titan, G42, along with its state-owned Saudi rival, Humain.

Both Gulf countries were keen to purchase advanced American AI chips during President Joe Biden's time in office, but were unable to overcome more stringent export controls. Saudi Arabia and the UAE want to plow their plentiful, cheap energy into AI data centres and export that computing data.

AI chips are considered dual-use technology because they can be used in civilian and military applications. In addition, some US officials have been wary of exporting the US's most advanced technology to the Gulf for fear it will be sold on to China and copied.

The Trump administration, however, had prioritised sales. With its plentiful land and cheap electricity prices, the Gulf is a major market for AI chip exporters. The industry has powered the US stock market higher this year amid broader concerns about the health of the global economy.

The Trump administration's actions suggest it is not worried about the warnings of China hawks in the national security establishment. This month, the White House even approved the sale of Nvidia's H200 chips to China, in a deal that will see the US government collect a 25 percent fee from the sales.

The H200 is less sophisticated than the Nvidia Blackwell chips approved for export to G42 and Humain.

On Monday, Warren and Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks called on the Trump administration to disclose details of any approvals of ongoing license reviews for sales to China.